Like The King once crooned, "It's Now or Never." Anyone out there interested in submitting their 40-minute-and-under film to the 2006 Florida Film Festival needs to get it in gear by this weekend. Today (November 18) is officially the final entry deadline for all shorts, be they narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, International, or some hybrid of the aforementioned categories. Since it is actually a "postmark" deadline, we will continue to take shorts submissions until the end of next week--after that pleading must be done on a case by case basis and you're probably out of luck. As always, info and an entry form are available at www.floridafilmfestival.com. So come on already--stop procrastinating and send us your masterpiece! And if it happens to be titled "Broken" you may want to consider a late change--we are now up to five films with that distinction, easily a record for entries with the same name. Do I hear six?

On another note, the Enzian and Florida Flm Festival staff offer a sincere note of congratulations to the following flms which earlier this week made the "Short List" for a Best Documentary Feature nomination in this year's Academy Awards: Jessica Sanders' AFTER INNOCENCE; Alex Gibney's ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM; Luc Jacquet's MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, and Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's MURDERBALL. All of these films had spectacular theatrical runs at Enzian and/or triumphant screenings at the 2005 Florida Film Festival, and we wish all of the filmmakers the best of luck. And though I have yet to see all of the other eleven films that made the Doc Feature "Short List," I have to agree with Anthony Kaufman's incredulous comments earlier this week: why isn't Werner Herzog's GRIZZLY MAN on this list? At least the IFP got it right and nominated it for a Gotham award.

--Matthew

Over the past two days, Enzian hosted the most successful Central Florida Jewish Film Festival ever. Hundreds of people came out to see three Florida premieres and participate in the Enzian Movie Club held in the courtyard after the Protocols of Zion screening tonight. It is so encouraging to see community support of our special events growing each year.

The CFJFF is our last mini-fest before we dive head first into preparations for the Florida Film Festival. This Friday (Nov. 18) is the late deadline for shorts. The late features deadline is Friday, December 2. As the tapes pile up, the weariness on the faces of the programming team and selection committees sets in, although they are already excited about the amount of quality films they have seen this year. A good sign for Fest fans...

We were also stoked to see Awful Normal, Dear Pillow, and Speedo, all FFF alums, included in indieWIRE's Undiscovered Gems series...catch them if they come to a city near you...

Last weekend Enzian played host to the 14th annual Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase, and for the first time in the event's history, it featured a juried competition. Founded a decade and a half ago by a pre-Blair Witch Gregg Hale, Brouhaha had always been a non-competitive celebration of Florida's finest indie and student filmmakers. Over the years, Enzian provided these films a rare opportunity to get screened in a genuinely theatrical environment. With so many other local venues now providing the chance for these filmmakers to get audience response and feedback on their short films, Brouhaha went under the knife for its most recent incarnation.

No longer open to just any statewide indie filmmaker, films had to originate at a Florida college, art or technical school, or a high school. Once the films were selected and screened as part of the Brouhaha Showcase, a jury would then decide on a "Best of Brouhaha" student program to be featured in the 2006 Florida Film Festival (March 24 - April 6) as an "Emerging Florida Filmmakers" sidebar. A jury consisting of Mark Astrom (President, New Screen Television), Brian Clark (Partner/CEO, GMD Studios), and Mary-Frances Emmons (Arts & Entertainment Editor, Orlando Sentinel) came away impressed with both the overall quality and variety represented by this group of student works, and have chosen the following titles to move on to this year's FFF:

Melissa Rossi's Charm, Christine Spindler's Sirah , and Greg Jardin's The Problem With Fiber Optics (Florida State University); Ryan Pomeranz's On Being Your Average Joe and Andrew Kenneth Gay's Love is Deaf (University of Central Florida); Jason Kupfer's Work Farm and Matthew Richards' Lobstar (Valencia Community College); and Pericles Michielin's Football Toys, Ian Yonika's Food for Thought, Nikki Tomaino's Rue Du Tordu, Melissa Webster's Abigail, Lacey Bannister's Bella Musica, and Joshua Beveridge's Things That Go Bump in the Night (Ringling School of Art & Design).

The jury also selected three "Honorable Mentions" to serve as alternates should any of the above films get accepted into the American Independent Competition portion of the Festival:

Mickelson Civil's Delivering Louverture and Susan Bell's The Resurrectionist (FSU), along with Erin Kitzinger's Life-To-Go (UCF)

Congratulations to everyone and we look forward to the inaugural Emerging Florida Filmmakers program at the Florida Film Festival in March!

- Matthew